Coleman reaches state, county wins eight medals

Wearing his third-place medal and displaying the 152-pound weight bracket, Upper Lake's Travis Coleman and Upper Lake coach Ron Campos had plenty to smile about Saturday during the North Coast Section Wrestling Championships in Newark. Coleman's third-place finish guarantees him a spot in the CIF State Championships beginning Friday in Bakersfield. (Photo by Eric Sneathen)

NEWARK -- Eight medals, one state qualifier and enough good vibrations to make the Beach Boys giddy. That pretty much summed up the second and final day of the North Coast Section Wrestling Championships for the Lake County contingent on Saturday at Newark Memorial High School.

Upper Lake High School, the five-time defending Coastal Mountain Conference and NCS Team Dual champion, placed eighth out of more than 90 teams for the second year in a row. The Cougars were easily the small-school David among a myriad of large-school Goliaths in a star-studded field, including team champion De La Salle out of Concord, James Logan, Windsor, Liberty, Freedom, College Park and Livermore, the teams that placed ahead of Upper Lake in the standings. Some of those schools have more than 20 times the manpower to call on compared to Upper Lake and its student body of around 300.

The Cougars not only took home five medals, but they qualified one of their own -- 152-pound senior Travis Coleman -- for the CIF State Championships this weekend in Bakersfield. Coleman placed third, going 5-1 during the two-day competition. His lone loss came in the semifinal on Saturday to Joey Clay of Rancho Cotate. Clay, who had lost to Coleman earlier this season at the Windsor Tournament, prevailed on a 13-3 major decision. He went on to lose to Tyler Randon of Livermore in the championship match while Coleman beat Ian Black of Healdsburg 9-5 for third place.

Also taking home medals, which go to the top eight in each of 14 weight divisions, were:

-- Upper Lake's Joey Valdez, fifth at 220 pounds.

-- Lower Lake's Thomas Cross, fifth at 170 pounds.

-- Upper Lake's Ward Beecher, sixth at 145 pounds.

-- Clear Lake's Nathan Powers, seventh at 160 pounds.

-- Upper Lake's Tony Lopez, eighth at 113 pounds.

-- Lower Lake's Dominick Dingess, eighth at 138 pounds.

-- Upper Lake's Jon Karlsson, eighth in the heavyweight division.

Two other CMC wrestlers -- Jacob Clark (182) and Neil Dondanville of Fort Bragg -- also medaled. In fact, Clark finished second and will advance to the state tournament along with Coleman. Dondanville came in sixth at 195 pounds.

"People don't realize how hard it is to win a medal down there, the competition is so tough," said Upper Lake coach Ron Campos, who had nothing but praise for his team's performance and especially the efforts turned in by his seniors - Coleman, Valdez, Beecher and Karlsson.

"Our kids are always in the match," Campos said. "They may get beat, but they're always there and you're going to know it."

While Upper Lake's medal count and Coleman's advancement to the state finals were among the headlines for Lake County wrestlers at the NCS Championships, there were other feel-good stories as well.

Lower Lake's Ed Fuchs, in his sixth season as the team's coach, had his first multi-medal section tournament as both Cross and Dingess came away with top-eight finishes. While Dingess was seeded at 138 pounds, Cross was unseeded at 170 pounds where he beat two top seeds.

'"I've never done that," Fuchs said of Lower Lake's two-medal day. "We placed 19th overall in the team standings ... I'm very proud of what this team accomplished. It's the best team I've had, a good group of guys and I will miss the seniors."

And while it was certainly easy to get lost in the Upper Lake-Lower Lake shuffle at the sections, Clear Lake's Powers simply went about his business on Saturday, which began with a 6-3 win over Zack McBeth of Castro Valley in the 160-pound consolation bracket, a victory that secured some sort of medal for the Clear Lake junior. While Powers lost his next match to James Cabral of De La Salle by 6-2 decision, he bounced back with a first-round pin against Austin Ball of Novato in the seventh-place match.

A little bit of history also was made by Upper Lake freshman Zack Sneathen. Needing a win in his first match Saturday to guarantee himself a medal, Sneathen lost a hard-fought 4-0 decision go Giordi Serafini of Sonoma, ending his tournament at 3-2 overall. However, he is the first Upper Lake freshman to make it to day two of the sectionals, according to Campos.

"He is an up-and-coming star," Campos said.

There also was a bit of controversy swirling around the match of one county wrestler. Lower Lake's Cross, 3-0 after Friday's action, opened Saturday with a semifinal match against Tanner Blank of Liberty. He was trailing 4-3 going to the second round when something unusual happened. While Blank was trying to pin Cross midway through the second period, a match on an adjacent mat between the other two 170-pound semifinalists boiled over onto the mat where Blank and Cross were doing battle.

Isai Guzman of Windsor was thrown on to the mat occupied by Blank and Cross and he actually fell on top of both wrestlers. Crushed to the mat, Cross was declared "pinned" by the official and the match ended.

"Guzman flies out of nowhere and falls on Thomas and the official called a pin," Fuchs said. "The whole gymnasium erupted into boos."

Fuchs asked for an explanation from the officials and was told that Guzman's presence on the mat didn't "change anything," according to the lead official. Fuchs began to argue but then left the mat.

"I left the mat because I was going to get a misconduct," Fuchs said. "I don't question refs that often, but that was the wrong call."

Unfortunately, once Fuchs left the mat so did his opportunity to file a protest, a decision Fuchs said he now regrets.

"I shouldn't have left, it was a mistake and I will learn from it," he said.

According to Fuchs, the official who made the call later apologized to a Lower Lake assistant coach.

"He said he made the wrong call," Fuchs said.

While Cross was trailing 10-3 at the point he was pinned, Fuchs said there was still time for his wrestler to make a comeback and that he deserved that chance.

"It was a crazy day," Fuchs said.

Cross rebounded with wins in two of his next three matches to secure a fifth-place medal, including an early third-round pin of Guzman -- the same wrestler who had fallen on him in the semifinals -- in the fifth-place match.

? Upper Lake

Learning from his mistake at the Windsor Tournament, Rancho Cotate's Clay didn't engage Coleman unless he had to in their semifinal meeting, fighting a defensive match, according to Campos.

"He wouldn't come close to wrestling our style," Campos said. "It worked very well for him (Clay)."

Coleman bounced back in the consolation bracket, beating Mark Wilhelm of College Park 13-7 in the consolation semifinals before defeating Healdsburg's Black in the third-place match.

"He went into that match (for third) like a true champion," Campos said. "His whole thing was 'let's get to state,' and he did. That kid came out and Travis just whipped him."

Valdez secured his fifth-place medal with an early second-round pin of Melvin Mangoba of De La Salle at 220 pounds.

"It was Joe's last (high school) match and it was an emotional one for both of us," Campos said. "That's one great kid right there."

Beecher had to injury default after hurting his knee at 145 pounds.

"He couldn't defend himself and I stopped the match," Campos said. "He's too much of a goer to quit, so I had to step in."

Lopez, the No. 7 seed at 113 pounds, and Karlsson, the No. 9 seed in the heavyweight division, both came away with eighth-place medals.

"He (Lopez) is going to be your star next year," Campos predicted. "He (Karlsson) is a quality kid and it's been my honor to coach him. He gave it his all."

Lower Lake

While Cross was placing fifth at 170 pounds, Dingess had a rough day after pinning David Pinto of San Ramon in the consolation bracket on Saturday. He hurt his head during that victory, so much so that when he aggravated the injury in his next match against Jack Walsh of De La Salle, a match in which Dingess held a 6-5 lead with about a minute to go, Fuchs stepped in to stop it.

"It's not worth it," Fuchs said. "I'm not going to put him at risk."

Walsh won by injury default and Dingess then forfeited the seventh-place match.

Lower Lake's other wrestler still alive going into Saturday's action was 195-pounder Thaddeus Wetmore, who needed a win in his first match to guarantee himself a medal. He lost 3-1 to Grant Harmant of College Park.